artist gallery : dianesmith

dianesmith's Profile


Bio

I have been working in glass since 2001. When I retired from the Air Force in 2007, I started working in glass full time. Currently, screen printing and weaving glass are my favorite techniques. I teach a few classes each year at John C. Campbell Folk School. My business name is Di-Fused Glass.
Recent Activity
1/4 Hollow Mandrel

1/4" Hollow Mandrel

Item# 54201
8 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Cheap Blowpipe, April 27, 2009 5 stars
Pros
Works great to blow small pieces in the torch and is much cheaper than task-specific blow pipe with shaped mouthpiece.
Cons
None.
Glassline Basic Chalk Assortment

Glassline Basic Chalk Assortment

Item# 80215
14 of 16 found the following review helpful:
Substitute for Powders, April 27, 2009 3 stars
Pros
These work well for coloring shelf paper as an inclusion and, when crushed to a powder and mixed with water and a binder, as a watercolor-like paint. You can also just sift the powder onto the glass, then fire.
Cons
As crayons, these are pretty worthless. These do not transfer color evenly to either sand-blasted or acid-etched glass.
Other Thoughts
I hated these chalks at first. They wouldn't apply evenly on either sand-blasted or acid-etched glass. There were large spaces with no color and clumps of powder. Then I decided to try some other way to use them since I'd invested the money and they were useless as chalks. I took my nugmeg microplane grater and shaved off a small amount of the crayon (using a dust mask). I mixed this with water and various mixing media, then fired to a tack fuse. The result was a beautiful translucent wash of color. I found flat 7-Up worked best as a binder. When uncapped, the surface was matte. You can also cap it with another piece of glass. You get a nice amount of powder from just an 1/8" of chalk, so now I'm happy with my purchase.
dianesmith
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Profile
dianesmith's info
joined:Nov 19, 2007
location:LAFAYETTE, IN US
display name:dianesmith